1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the art of forming a stack of crop material bales and, more particularly, is concerned with a bale wagon incorporating improved features for facilitating the formation of a block-type, tied or interlocked stack of bales thereon.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is accepted present day practice to form bales of crop material such as hay or the like into stacks through the employment of an automatic bale wagon.
One type of bale wagon which has achieved widespread commercial acceptance is the automatic bale wagon which employs the three table concept, as originally illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,848,172 which issued to Gordon E. Grey.
The Grey bale wagon includes a first table which successively receives bales from a bale loader or pickup on the wagon and accumulates a predetermined number of them, for example two, being arranged end-to-end in a row, a second table which successively receives the accumulated rows of bales from the first table and accumulates a plurality thereof, such as 4, 5 or 6 rows, which plurality of rows is commonly called a tier of bales, and a third table or load bed which successively receives the tiers from the second table and accumulates a plurality of the tiers, for example, 7, to form a stack thereon. Once the stack has been accumulated on the load bed, it may be unloaded by pivoting the load bed 90.degree. and depositing the stack on the ground or the like with the first tier of bales which was previously accumulated on the second table now being the lowermost tier of the stack in contact with the ground surface.
Since the stack formed by the bale wagon and deposited on the ground at a storage location may remain there for an extended period of time, it is desirable that the bales forming the lowermost tier be oriented such that a non-twine or-wire bearing side of each bale, commonly referred to as an "edge" of a bale, is in contact with the ground in order to avoid wire rusting or twine rotting which eventually would result in broken bales in the lowermost tier and probable toppling of the stack.
To provide the aforementioned desired orientation of the bales of the lowermost tier of the stack, the operations which have heretofore been performed in picking up and forming bales into each of the tiers of the stack by the bale wagon are as follows. First, bales deposited on one of their edge sides in a field by a baler are picked up by the bale wagon loader and moved through a 90.degree. lateral path to the first table where they are supported on one of their twine or wire bearing sides, commonly referred to as a "flat" side of the bale. Then, the first table is pivotally moved so as to lift and revolve the bales approximately 90.degree. and deposit them on the second table of the wagon in the same desired edge side orientation as they will appear when subsequently transferred in stack form by the load bed of the wagon to the ground.
In order to enhance the stability of the stack, it is generally desirable to provide one or more tie tiers within the stack, such being tiers having individual bales arranged to overlap two bales in adjacent tiers above and below the the tier. Formation of one or more tie tiers can be accomplished during formation of the stack on the bale wagon, for example, through utilization of a mechanism which is similar to that illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,395,814 and has been incorporated into several present day commercial models of the Grey bale wagon.
Overall, the stacks of bales formed by these current models of the Grey bale wagon, wherein all of the bales are oriented on their edge sides, have satisfactory stability.
However, with respect to stacks which must conform to certain legal width restrictions in order for transport on public highways by trucks and are formed of bales having certain size dimensions, it has been found more desirable to orient the bales of all of the tiers of the stacks, including the tie tiers, but excluding the lowermost tier, on their flat sides. For example, in the case of bales having the approximate size dimensions of 16 inches (edge side width) .times. 23 inches (flat side width) .times. 46 inches (length), being most prevalent in the southwestern region of the U.S., bales oriented on their flat (23 inches wide) sides each cover a surface area having a length approximately twice that of its width and thus may be formed by some current Grey bale wagon models into compact, square tie tier patterns utilizing a tie mechanism similar to that disclosed in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,395,814, as well as a compact and square standard tier pattern, if such models were adapted to pick up bales lying on their flat sides in the field. Standard and tie tiers having such a compact and square configuration would form a block-type stack which conforms to the legal width and tier pattern restrictions for public highway transportation.
Although current models of the Grey bale wagon utilizing the aforementioned tie mechanism could readily be adapted, by widening their bale loader, to pick up bales placed on their flat sides on the field by a baler, as opposed to the prevailing, more desirable, practice of depositing bales on their edge sides in the field, and build a stack in which all bales of the standard and tie tier patterns would be oriented on their flat sides after the stack is unloaded upright from the bale wagon, the advantage described hereinbefore associated with orienting the bales of the lowermost tier on their edge sides would not be retained since the first table and its standard mode of operation as heretofore provided on all models of the Grey bale wagon up to the present most current ones do not have the capability of selectively depositing bales onto the second table in either one of an edge side or flat side orientation.
Additionally, although one manner of automatically providing the formation of bales into a tie tier pattern after a predetermined number of standard tier patterns have been formed and stacked on the bale wagon was disclosed in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,395,814, which also disclosed in the above-referred to tie mechanism, none of the recent models of the Grey bale wagon, which have utilized a tie mechanism similar to the disclosed in aforementioned patent, have the capability of automatically forming bales into a tie tier pattern without the bale wagon operator closely monitoring and controlling the tier-forming operations on the second table on the bale wagon. The operator must count the tiers as they are formed and, at the proper moments, manually operate control levers to actuate the tie mechanism and, in some instances, partially cycle the second table to cause formation of the tie tiers.